Agreed. American JE translator here. I clicked the video hoping the translations would be good, and the translator really hit it out of the park. Lots of hard concepts here, but explained accurately and easily. As far as I can tell, the translator didn't even get a mention in the credits! (Unless they were credited differently.) Also, the historian did a great job of distilling a lot of hard-to-explain Japanese cultural concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. Particularly with this question, which is one I find difficult to explain to foreigners: 28:59 Samurai nostalgia
I haven't even watched this video yet and the moment I saw him I knew he would start speaking Japanese and I wondered how well the translation would be done. Thank you kindly for your rate.
Thank you for mentioning that, and thanks to everyone who gave the comment thumbs up! 🙂 I'm a random translator of small languages in Europe and having to quit after 20 years. Because the prices not only don't reflect the inflation but are actually going down. I've translated for diplomats, translated films for the TV, written an encyclopaedia in two languages, helped secure a massive contract for my country's biggest company by being the only technical translator in the country who could translate the documents they needed. And now I can't even pay my rent and buy food because, you know, "your job could be done by AI so why should we pay you normal money?" A good translation is an invisible translation. So it means a lot when someone points it out! Huge thanks! 🧡
@@martavdz4972 thank you for being passionate about translations. I am a bookseller, also a dying trade, and cannot express how valuable your trade i!
Love the subtitled content tbh, it makes sense that the best people to speak on a topic don’t speak English or aren’t fluent enough to speak at the academic and potentially jargon heavy level they’d prefer to. I’m happy to read subtitles if it means you’re able to cover more varied and perhaps country specific topics. Love the series and look forward to more!
@@jameswatson5807 not if they are preoccupied with learning something else. learning english as a priority is just for all the rest of us sharing that knowledge
thank you for featuring a non-English speaker as one of your experts! it's honestly even better to hear someone speak the native language of the history they're teaching. also, i speak japanese, but there's a lot of terminology here i don't recognise, so i'm getting to enjoy the best of both worlds by listening to him & checking the subtitles to learn new words!
Thats why as an English speaker that only has a basic grasp on the grammar and whose vocab for Japanese is happy they used subs. If they made him speak English, between a thick accent and him likely not being fluent, he would've struggled to explain the topics in a proper way and dubs tend to be more overzealous on corrections than subs which means a lot likely would've been lost.
Thank you for not dubbing over the speaker. This is a great format for subtitles, because there isn’t much going on visually that you’re missing by reading the subtitles.
Loved it😃, nothing is better than someone who explain history so enthusiastically that it was a pleasure to learn from it, plz can we get more of him!?
Everytime I watch this man speak, I learn so much. I've watched him speak on documentaries and on expert videos. Samurai are incredibly fascinating and he's a wealth of information.
Yes, I thought the same while listening to him. He gives a nice rational explanation, without too much "romance" about it. Very interesting. Thank you for pointing this out, it wasn't just my impression.
@@sbarley It is sad to see how hard people would cope just to keep up the samurai narrative. The guy does NOT have a surname and hence far more likely than not he was nothing more than a slave. You think they had full name recorded for his italian master but just "Yasuke" if he was ever given a surname? The expert even very subtly hinted by telling you he was likely not treated well.
Even the first non-Asian samurai, Jan Joosten and William Adams, who were both commissioned as officers (hatamoto) under Tokugawa Ieyasu, were not in combat roles but acted as advisors, interpreters and logisticians.
I love the translations using subtitles rather than dubbing over the speaker, it makes difficult concepts flow naturally, and it's nice to hear the inflection and tone of a native speaker with extensive knowledge on the topic. Thank you Mr. Yasutsune Owada for sharing your expertise!
The explanation of the flashy armors and why they wanted the attention on them during the battle is so real, relatable and hilarious at the same time lmao
"Milord! It was definitely Miki-san who cut off the enemy general's head before he himself was shot!" "And how do you know this?" "I mean, who else wears black armor with red bottoms and a helmet with huge black ears?" "....." "......." "OK. Fine."
@@andrewsuryali8540 it's also funny when you look into the history of why Monologues are common on anime: they used to loudly declare challenges, who they were, and their past and current victories as a way to engage in one on one and in order to gain and spread their renown. They didn't name and yell their attacks, but that it a modernize interpretation of that history that was added on for entertainment and became part of the pop culture zeitgeist.
The idea that they needed an audience before a one v one is oddly amusing to me. I understand that they needed a witness but still a little amusing to imagine it
@@JargonMadjin you know, it is just like with fighter aces during WWII. They normally needed a witness to confirm their aerial kills. And some countries had stricter rules regarding it.
It's wild how brown rice with mixed grains was for the poor back in the feudal days, but in Japan today it's considered a health food and somewhat more expensive than white rice.
In the western middle ages white bread and other highly processed grains were the food of the wealthy too, where as whole grain and other darker breads were for the peasants. Turns out the latter is more healthy for you and former is actually quite rubbish food source. All carbs with no fibers to balance it out.
Just like bread! In the Victorian era, bleached flour cost a massive premium, and thus white bread was only for the very rich. Whole grain breads were considered low class and inferior quality. That's why bakers started using so many toxic additives, they were searching for a cheaper way to bleach their flour to produce white bread. Now, of course, white bread is considered low class and whole wheat is considered healthier food and more expensive.
@@Tinil0especially sourdough and rye bread, back in the day those two varieties were for the poorest of the poor when there’s nothing else to eat, now they’re considered “fancier” than white bread
Loved this episode and hope there are more Japanese episodes in the future - such a rich culture with rich history and information to share. Can't wait to see more
It’s fascinating how similar the feaudal system in medieval Japan is to medieval Europe and how both developed an aristocratic warrior class that are nearly identical in how they fight and operate, without having any contact with each other.
I really would love to know what a medieval knight would think of the samurai's code of Bushido, and in turn what a samurai would think of the knights' code of Chivalry. Whenever the whole "knight vs samurai" debate breaks out, one of the most heavily discussed aspects of that debate is "Bushido Vs. Chivalry".
@@kevinnorwood8782There was no universal "bushido code", in fact the term was not first used until the 1700s and not popularized until the late 1800s. How the Samurai operated differed based on time and place. If anything, the modern concept of Bushido was CREATED as a response to the introduction of Western ideas of Chivalry into Japan.
@@kevinnorwood8782 To be honest they probably would just have disdained each other's code as a barbarous heresy, but it is interesting to imagine what an improbably open-minded knight/samurai might have thought.
As I understood it, they were so conspicuous for their children's sake. Like he said, if they died honourably, their children were provided for and their family given an honorary position.
Wired really said subs over dubs 💪 Wonderful video, it's always so much fun to watch these, and I'm so glad you allowed him to explain his expertise in his most familiar language rather than having to translate. Major shoutout to the translator/subtitler as well.
This is a great format for subtitles, because there isn’t much going on visually that you’re missing by reading the subtitles. I enjoy listening to people speak other languages even though I can’t understand them.
The expert here is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, which is awesome! I don't mind reading the subtitles, but I do wish they were easier to read on mobile. The black border shrinks a lot on mobile and so you end up with very low contrast against the white background. I would have liked them to be a bit bigger (or offer them as RUclips captions in English, since those use black bar backgrounds that are very easy to read)
My logo is my Japanese family crest. I have 7 generation of Samurai in my family before they immigrated to the states in 1890. I've been lucky enough to see Kumamoto Castle and travel around Japan. This was very entertaining and educational to watch.
Here comes Mr.Owada! good choice. Not only him but also his father Tetsuo is one of the most famous and reliable historian in Japan. Besides their ancestors were Samurai for sure.
oh this is awesome, it's always fun to go directly to the source for more accurate information, I wouldn't mind reading subtitle if we can explore more of this type of subject
That's why for Japan and some other nations I tend to say "feudal era" instead. A lot of people tend to assume their middle ages was the same as Europe's because that's really all they were taught about. The difference is based on semantics, but it helps trigger an assumed difference in people's brain instead of an assumed similarity. Meaning if they don't know, they're more likely to stop and ask when that period was exactly vs assuming.
seeing some people in the comments say they didnt watch because they have to 'READ'. the attention span, entitlement, and laziness of people is really disgustingly horrendous. imagine actually sitting down and watching something for the full length of a video. you might just actually learn something. oh right, your attention is already gone because you're trying to multitask...
@@Ryuji777x The series was great before, it's a great time to do a mindless task while listening to someone talk about history or something. Keep sucking yourself off for staring directly at the video instead of listening to it tho, truely a mark of character and something that actually matters fr💀
Just a random request - when doing subtitles, use a colored tablecloth. The white writing on the white background is very hard to see, especially when watching on a phone.
Finally, a sane answer to the whole Yasuke debate. No evidence of him ever being a samurai, or being treated as such. The Talk page on Wikipedia about this topic is has been a bloodbath for months.
Did you watch the video? His answer was "there is a debate" meaning he can't say for sure one way or another which is also essentially has been happening with the discussion around the new AC game
@@commandercavy9549 I've observed that Wiki bloodbath since day one. I knew about Yasuke like 15 years ago. And, he was never considered a samurai. Nobody questioned it, because there was zero evidence to support that claim. Then the woke Ubisoft zerglings came along and just overrun the page, citing history fanfic writers like Thomas Lockley as "legitimate historical sources", because the burden of proof was on the zerglings. Then they went through extreme mental gymnastics and semantic kung-fu, only to land on the sentence "Yasuke was a man of African origin who served AS a samurai." Can you notice how subtle it is? Since they couldn't prove he was a samurai, because of course there was no evidence, and every single argument was disproven, about this sword, house and stippend, they argued that "while he might not have OFFICIALLY been a samurai, he served AS a samurai, in SOME capacity." That would be like me doing a citizen's arrest and then claiming I'm a police officer. It's raw insanity of the highest order of magnitude.
ya i remember this tidbit too; that the samurai rarely used swords. since anyone smart enough would choose a long rang weapon over a short one to increase survivability. so the sword at the end became more of a status symbol and too precious to actually be used
The armour at 7:16 is a Sendai dō, a type of (north) eastern cuirass that was in use by the Date clan following the Keichō period. I wrote a research paper on the development of these types of armors in eastern Japan during the late 16th century, for those interested it is called Tōgoku no bugu (東国の武具): study notes
@TheBadsectorzero No, Japanese armor was traditionally made either of steel, iron or hardened rawhide. Some of those armor pieces might have been shaped to look like "fish" scale although another interpretation is feather, but they were still made of the aforementioned material. It is a much later design tho like around the 1600-1700 and it is usually called gyorin zane (魚鱗札)
This is zenith of @wired support videos. I loved every bit of information. His enthusiasm was infectious and honestly am looking forward to many more videos in native languages! Just a thought: if you are releasing a video on topic let us know. We would love to ask questions. My question for the expert is: when did katana and samurai acquired cult status?
Absolutely wonderful Wired video, one of the best. Yasutsune Owada had some incredible answers, demystifying many perceptions and expertly conveyed the history and also the gray areas of how Feudal Japanese history evolved. I'm happy to see people looking at the deeper nuances of Japanese history and how it's impacted modern Japan.
I struggle to visualize, to truly understand, medieval warfare across the board despite it being an interest. This guy has an amazing way with words. Succinct, but it put me right there and the mechanics of the warfare make sense, after only a short paragraph. Awesome video.
Dan Carlin has always said, if he had a Time Machine, he’d go in some sort of hot air balloon & observe these ancient battles. It would answer so many questions. For much, we can only infer & surmise how these things went- and can only guess how chaotic it truly was.
This might be the best video WIRED has put out point blank period. As usual, super knowledgable and engaging person selected to speak, but the more complete answers added a depth and context I really appreciated. More like this please! Give these experts the time they deserve.
In the comments, an awful lot of children who apparently can't read nor want to: complaining about subtitles. Grow up kiddos, not everything needs to be spoonfed to you in your native tongue to be valuable. They put more effort into bringing you this information than you normally put in while driving or on your lunch break, you can read subtitles every now and then. I am using an aggressive tone because that is the tone I'm reading in these comments. Wired, please do not let those people dictate your creative direction in the future.
@@ThunderXSurge Although the thread OP may come across as a little brusque (I suspect this is reason why you are arguing with him), he is essentially correct. Most adults would consider it silly to allow subtitles to get in the way of interesting information. Are subtitles truly such an inconvenience that you'd get drawn into an argument over them? Like I said earlier, you're probably not here because you care, you're here because you think OP is a jerk.
I know there are other equivalents in SOME cultures to the Samurai but it's wild that such a small country like Japan has such a popular and unique class in their history. Tough not to simp sometimes.
Amazing Q&A. There is a similar proverb in Turkey about honesty. Also horseback archery and fighting were the building stones of central asian civilizations. they heavily relied on their bows and arrows, sword was used as a last resort.
It is interesting that both in Japan and Europe, some noble families fell into financial ruin but retained their social status, then selling them to others with money for that status
I like the subtitles, but they are too small for phone screens. It doesn’t help that the text body is white with a relatively thin black outline on a white background.
I actually really don't mind the subtitled videos! Reading it honestly helps you grasp it better anyway. I'm curious if anyone knows: at the beginning of the video the subtitles say "the first question" but he speaks like 10 syllables. Is that really what he said directly translates to? I'm just wondering why there were so many sounds/how its broken down.
He says まず最初のご質問ですけれども (mazu saisho no go-shitsumon desu kere domo). The only part that literally translates to "the first question" is "saisho no go-shitsumon". "mazu" can be thought of as something like "to start us off..." or "to begin with...", and is very commonly heard in Japanese, even if it sounds a little redundant to write out the literal translation. The last part, desu kere domo, is a little complicated, but just think of it as boilerplate Japanese for very politely bringing up a topic. Since he's about to dive in to the first question, this is a natural way to transition using polite speech. You can make it less formal by changing "keredomo" to "ga".
"Well, now then, here we have the first question; ..." as Peanutchy notes, some what he said is a common set phrase, e.g.. desu kere domo "Well, now then ..". Cheers.
@@Peanutchy That was an awesome explanation. Thank you very much! Appreciate you writing all of that out, I get why they wouldve condensed it in the subtitles.
Oh, THIS is the episode that tops it all--educationally AND culturally. 💯 We love how we can share different cultures BY the people who originate and take care of this culture. I absolutely salute WIRED for their top-notch content. 👍🏻
you can see how passionate he is, yasuke only really became a popular talking point of japanese history on internet recently so when asked about this really niche obscure guy with a cool story his eyes just light up lol
18:00 Interestingly, brown rice is now more expensive than white rice. This is because white rice is the staple food in modern Japan. However, because only the core of the grain is eaten, white rice has much lower nutritional value than brown rice or millet. Additionally, because grains such as brown rice and millet were rich in nutritional value, farmers during the Edo period were sometimes healthier than ordinary people living in cities.
In areas where trade cooperatives and fishermen's cooperatives existed, it was easy to obtain fish for protein, and in towns where a carnivorous culture remained, samurai and others had large, muscular bodies. This was a common tendency among Japanese people living in Kyushu during the late Edo period.
Spear was the most used and most efficient weapon during medieval era at any regions, but today sword is more popular and glorified because it looks "cooler" while being used. Apparently running around slashing enemies is cooler than standing still and poking. Few region I know that still portray spear as the main weapon in modern culture like movies, novels and games is China (Dynasty Warriors, Wukong, etc).
The most impressive part of this is him acknowledging cultural and historical values without phrasing it in a way adverse to modern values. Tat is a difficult line to walk and he does it very well.
ありがとう、おわだ先生！御名前の漢字をちゃんと付けなかった、すみませんでした。丁寧に説明方で教えて下さると、聞く喜びました。大学生の日本語先生な懐かしい思い出が出ってくります。もちろん、書き悪かった部分は私のせいで、大学生の先生を攻まないように。 And in English, thank you again!
I'm not at all surprised to see Yusuke's name come up. Western liberals are obsessed with the idea. But in reality he was a nobody and basicly just a pet or trophy to show off, His name translates to something like "Very Servant". There's almost nothing mentioned of him outside of 1 or 2 letters and he was only around for a couple of months before leaving. The reason Yasuke "came out of the blue" is because some British guy extrapolated (made up) 99.99% of it within the last decade so that he could sell books to western liberals desperate for anything that might assuage their own white guilt and black supremacists have a habit of cultural appropriation. If he had been a samurai, If he had magically become so proficient in arts that take decades to practice in just 2 months, There would have been a lot more written about him.
What a great video, I couldn’t stop watching because there was so much info packed in. If they do a follow up with him I have a question: are there still people in Japan who consider themselves descendants of samurai? Kind of like the Daughters of the American Revolution (that’s the best example I could think of, maybe it’s not applicable).
Yes. Japanese Figure Skater Nobunari Oda is a direct descendant of Oda Nobunaga. A samurai clan who at one time conqured most of Japan during the Sengoku period
Rather than "some people think they are descendants of samurai", there are actually descendants of samurai. Moreover, if it is a high-ranking family line, there are also samurai families that have survived directly to this day. (I'm worried about whether it's being translated correctly, so I'll add it. "There are direct descendants. ")
No one is hating. He litteraly said that it's possible he was we just don't have enough evidence. You people are taking it like he said that he wasn't a samurai for sure. Your listening but not hearing what he is saying
@basicname1555 And "you people" only cherry pick the words you want to hear, not the other way around. An entire wiki was re-edited based on a quack fraud using his own book as the proof of source, but of course, that slipped over your self- righteous heads. When a real historian even pips up, contradicting Ubislop's words, they got blocked. How very closed off, for a company advocating for "dIvErSiTy".
@@basicname1555 if he had been a samurai, why left? why not served either akechi or toyotomi? after all, samurai was a social class that's respected during the sengoku jidai until the Meiji Restoration
Non-japanese, non-native English country I am. It's great to have subtitles on, maybe because I used to read subtitles and having speed reading capability.
kudos to the translator that made the subtitles. I'm japanese/american and there were a lot of difficult words being used, all translated flawlessly
Agreed. American JE translator here. I clicked the video hoping the translations would be good, and the translator really hit it out of the park. Lots of hard concepts here, but explained accurately and easily. As far as I can tell, the translator didn't even get a mention in the credits! (Unless they were credited differently.) Also, the historian did a great job of distilling a lot of hard-to-explain Japanese cultural concepts in an easy-to-understand manner. Particularly with this question, which is one I find difficult to explain to foreigners:
28:59 Samurai nostalgia
That keigo is hardcore.
I haven't even watched this video yet and the moment I saw him I knew he would start speaking Japanese and I wondered how well the translation would be done. Thank you kindly for your rate.
Thank you for mentioning that, and thanks to everyone who gave the comment thumbs up! 🙂
I'm a random translator of small languages in Europe and having to quit after 20 years. Because the prices not only don't reflect the inflation but are actually going down. I've translated for diplomats, translated films for the TV, written an encyclopaedia in two languages, helped secure a massive contract for my country's biggest company by being the only technical translator in the country who could translate the documents they needed. And now I can't even pay my rent and buy food because, you know, "your job could be done by AI so why should we pay you normal money?"
A good translation is an invisible translation. So it means a lot when someone points it out! Huge thanks! 🧡
@@martavdz4972 thank you for being passionate about translations. I am a bookseller, also a dying trade, and cannot express how valuable your trade i!
Love the subtitled content tbh, it makes sense that the best people to speak on a topic don’t speak English or aren’t fluent enough to speak at the academic and potentially jargon heavy level they’d prefer to. I’m happy to read subtitles if it means you’re able to cover more varied and perhaps country specific topics. Love the series and look forward to more!
They all learn English in Japan.
Not in any special way, the rest of the world doesn't prioritise an inferior language like english.
@@jameswatson5807 not if they are preoccupied with learning something else. learning english as a priority is just for all the rest of us sharing that knowledge
@@SplendidKunoichi English is a required subject in both junior high and high schools in Japan.
I loved it as well, but found myself backtracking when a really colorful picture popped up on screen and had to pause it to enjoy the picture!
thank you for featuring a non-English speaker as one of your experts! it's honestly even better to hear someone speak the native language of the history they're teaching. also, i speak japanese, but there's a lot of terminology here i don't recognise, so i'm getting to enjoy the best of both worlds by listening to him & checking the subtitles to learn new words!
I’m Japanese. He used quite difficult words but i think subtitles really made sense and it’s understandable. I enjoyed wired every time thanks.
Thats why as an English speaker that only has a basic grasp on the grammar and whose vocab for Japanese is happy they used subs. If they made him speak English, between a thick accent and him likely not being fluent, he would've struggled to explain the topics in a proper way and dubs tend to be more overzealous on corrections than subs which means a lot likely would've been lost.
@@Insertia_Nameia And let's not start about those awful anime dubbing incident 🤣
@@StorymasterQ
Mei dragon ?
Thank you for not dubbing over the speaker. This is a great format for subtitles, because there isn’t much going on visually that you’re missing by reading the subtitles.
Loved it😃, nothing is better than someone who explain history so enthusiastically that it was a pleasure to learn from it, plz can we get more of him!?
Everytime I watch this man speak, I learn so much. I've watched him speak on documentaries and on expert videos. Samurai are incredibly fascinating and he's a wealth of information.
Agreed! I do speak Japanese as well, so if you see this comment and have any recommendations I'd love to hear them.
@@OJtheLIONKing @quietstar09silver50 Yes please!
As a Japanese who has studied Japanese history, I can assure you that his commentary is most balanced, with little beautification or trivialization.
Yes, I thought the same while listening to him. He gives a nice rational explanation, without too much "romance" about it. Very interesting. Thank you for pointing this out, it wasn't just my impression.
実際体験してない時代の歴史について知識をおもしろく紹介する範囲にとどめて
答えを断定しない歴史学習は尊敬できる
I like how honest and, well, academic, he was with the answer about Yasuke
So he was not a samurai
@@sbarley to be a samurai he need a surname but he doesn't have any surname
@@sbarley It is sad to see how hard people would cope just to keep up the samurai narrative. The guy does NOT have a surname and hence far more likely than not he was nothing more than a slave. You think they had full name recorded for his italian master but just "Yasuke" if he was ever given a surname? The expert even very subtly hinted by telling you he was likely not treated well.
@@sbarley dude it like western Knight , need a name , a house and a lord not some random mercenary
Even the first non-Asian samurai, Jan Joosten and William Adams, who were both commissioned as officers (hatamoto) under Tokugawa Ieyasu, were not in combat roles but acted as advisors, interpreters and logisticians.
I love the translations using subtitles rather than dubbing over the speaker, it makes difficult concepts flow naturally, and it's nice to hear the inflection and tone of a native speaker with extensive knowledge on the topic. Thank you Mr. Yasutsune Owada for sharing your expertise!
The explanation of the flashy armors and why they wanted the attention on them during the battle is so real, relatable and hilarious at the same time lmao
"Milord! It was definitely Miki-san who cut off the enemy general's head before he himself was shot!"
"And how do you know this?"
"I mean, who else wears black armor with red bottoms and a helmet with huge black ears?"
"....."
"......."
"OK. Fine."
@@andrewsuryali8540 Yeah, pretty much. Easier to be seen if you're wearing bright and obvious colours, patterns, your clan colours.
@@andrewsuryali8540 it's also funny when you look into the history of why Monologues are common on anime: they used to loudly declare challenges, who they were, and their past and current victories as a way to engage in one on one and in order to gain and spread their renown. They didn't name and yell their attacks, but that it a modernize interpretation of that history that was added on for entertainment and became part of the pop culture zeitgeist.
The idea that they needed an audience before a one v one is oddly amusing to me. I understand that they needed a witness but still a little amusing to imagine it
@@JargonMadjin you know, it is just like with fighter aces during WWII. They normally needed a witness to confirm their aerial kills. And some countries had stricter rules regarding it.
One of the best Q&A about samurai an the internet. No simping or BS just straight out answers without romantisizing. Great interview
This was very insightful. Direct and educational and it dispelled and corrected some myths I held. Every day is a school day.
It's wild how brown rice with mixed grains was for the poor back in the feudal days, but in Japan today it's considered a health food and somewhat more expensive than white rice.
In the western middle ages white bread and other highly processed grains were the food of the wealthy too, where as whole grain and other darker breads were for the peasants. Turns out the latter is more healthy for you and former is actually quite rubbish food source. All carbs with no fibers to balance it out.
It’s just like bread when white bread used to be a delicacy
Just like bread! In the Victorian era, bleached flour cost a massive premium, and thus white bread was only for the very rich. Whole grain breads were considered low class and inferior quality. That's why bakers started using so many toxic additives, they were searching for a cheaper way to bleach their flour to produce white bread. Now, of course, white bread is considered low class and whole wheat is considered healthier food and more expensive.
@@Tinil0especially sourdough and rye bread, back in the day those two varieties were for the poorest of the poor when there’s nothing else to eat, now they’re considered “fancier” than white bread
Just like white and wheat bread nowadays 😊
As someone who's grown up playing Samurai Warriors and being obsessed with Sengoku period because of it, this video is fascinating to see
This is the first time anyone has ever played Samurai Warriors
Loved this episode and hope there are more Japanese episodes in the future - such a rich culture with rich history and information to share. Can't wait to see more
It’s fascinating how similar the feaudal system in medieval Japan is to medieval Europe and how both developed an aristocratic warrior class that are nearly identical in how they fight and operate, without having any contact with each other.
I really would love to know what a medieval knight would think of the samurai's code of Bushido, and in turn what a samurai would think of the knights' code of Chivalry. Whenever the whole "knight vs samurai" debate breaks out, one of the most heavily discussed aspects of that debate is "Bushido Vs. Chivalry".
Warrior social classes historically has always been common throughout the world.
@@kevinnorwood8782There was no universal "bushido code", in fact the term was not first used until the 1700s and not popularized until the late 1800s. How the Samurai operated differed based on time and place. If anything, the modern concept of Bushido was CREATED as a response to the introduction of Western ideas of Chivalry into Japan.
@@kevinnorwood8782 To be honest they probably would just have disdained each other's code as a barbarous heresy, but it is interesting to imagine what an improbably open-minded knight/samurai might have thought.
In an age of violence it makes sense for a warrior class to rule.
"If I die in a super cool 1v1 with a rival samurai but no one is around to see it, what's the point?" -samurai
As I understood it, they were so conspicuous for their children's sake. Like he said, if they died honourably, their children were provided for and their family given an honorary position.
25:27 This is why in Spirited Away, Yubaba took Chihiro's name to get her under her command.
Yuck... Anime.
@@richardsamueljordan1569You knew it was anime. There was no mention of that. That means you know that show. Yuck.
@@richardsamueljordan1569 that's such a bizarre way to troll
@@nielle_ Just ignore it. What they want is attention to fulfill their boring life.
@@nielle_ troll? Its not trolling to say that anime is disgusting. And the fat disgusting greasy unwashed freaks that watch it.
前に日本人の研究者がこれに出た時は不自然な言葉の切り方がされてたけど今回はされてなくて良かった…
WiredじゃなくてInsiderの動画じゃない？
あそこもよく日本人呼んでインタビューしてるけど翻訳と編集が粗くてめちゃくちゃ気になるんだよな…
is this the first Wired Tech Support in foreign language? this is so exciting! Hope there's more foreign-language tech support episodes to come!
@@milozimben The one of physics? That one speaks in English
I could watch this gentleman for hours. So incredibly interesting. Please do a part 2 with him!
Wired really said subs over dubs 💪
Wonderful video, it's always so much fun to watch these, and I'm so glad you allowed him to explain his expertise in his most familiar language rather than having to translate. Major shoutout to the translator/subtitler as well.
This is a great format for subtitles, because there isn’t much going on visually that you’re missing by reading the subtitles. I enjoy listening to people speak other languages even though I can’t understand them.
I love the beautiful illustrations included to show the history.
小和田先生、このたび大変ありがとうございます。先生の説明が分かりやすいし、様々なテーマに詳しいので動画を見るのがすっごく楽しかったです。やはりかつての日本人も今の日本人も侍の影響を受けているに違いないですね。どこの国でも一般人が上流階級の生活を真似しがちだと思いますね。特に、中世と近世の時代それが顕著のではないでしょうか。現代、侍の歴史とか生き方は漫画や映画に通じ伝えられ、外国にもこの立派な武士たちに憧れる人がいます。これは素晴らしいことだと思います。
Can we take a moment to appreciate that "history is written by the winners" does not apply here? Humility at its finest.
The expert here is clearly knowledgeable and passionate, which is awesome! I don't mind reading the subtitles, but I do wish they were easier to read on mobile. The black border shrinks a lot on mobile and so you end up with very low contrast against the white background. I would have liked them to be a bit bigger (or offer them as RUclips captions in English, since those use black bar backgrounds that are very easy to read)
Give the man another hour!
My logo is my Japanese family crest. I have 7 generation of Samurai in my family before they immigrated to the states in 1890. I've been lucky enough to see Kumamoto Castle and travel around Japan. This was very entertaining and educational to watch.
Id love more internation experts on tech support but PLEASE add a black background to the text so its easier to read 🙏 thanks WIRED
Here comes Mr.Owada! good choice. Not only him but also his father Tetsuo is one of the most famous and reliable historian in Japan. Besides their ancestors were Samurai for sure.
Love this long form video ,❤ finally enough time to actually learn something
oh this is awesome, it's always fun to go directly to the source for more accurate information, I wouldn't mind reading subtitle if we can explore more of this type of subject
*For non-Japanese
The "Middle Ages" in Japan means the 11th to 16th centuries, unlike the 5th to 15th centuries in Europe.
and that age was not "dark-age".
That's why for Japan and some other nations I tend to say "feudal era" instead. A lot of people tend to assume their middle ages was the same as Europe's because that's really all they were taught about. The difference is based on semantics, but it helps trigger an assumed difference in people's brain instead of an assumed similarity. Meaning if they don't know, they're more likely to stop and ask when that period was exactly vs assuming.
@@Insertia_Nameia yeah Feudal Era is probably the best translation
@@Insertia_Nameia Yeah but "feudal era" includes the Edo period (17th to mid-19th centuries) so it's not really interchangeable.
seeing some people in the comments say they didnt watch because they have to 'READ'. the attention span, entitlement, and laziness of people is really disgustingly horrendous. imagine actually sitting down and watching something for the full length of a video. you might just actually learn something. oh right, your attention is already gone because you're trying to multitask...
Hey man I just have a very small screen and a poor sight. Have you seen how tiny those subs are?
@@DocSineBell How tiny is your screen? GBA?
@hanifarroisimukhlis5989 i'm watching RUclips on my calculator
That's americans for you.
@@Ryuji777x The series was great before, it's a great time to do a mindless task while listening to someone talk about history or something. Keep sucking yourself off for staring directly at the video instead of listening to it tho, truely a mark of character and something that actually matters fr💀
I was jus asking for this episode thank you !!!!
"To see what is right, but not to do it, is want of courage."-Yoshimitsu
The amount of knowledge of this man is unbelievable. I was really impressed. Great interview. Thank you for this.
This is one of the most knowledgeable and amazing videos that this channel has published. Kudos.
he said lemme tell yall how it is and dont twist it
Indeed he did. 😂
That was really good. Not just short answers to the questions, but very nice elaboration and more insights about various things. Enjoyed that a lot!
Just a random request - when doing subtitles, use a colored tablecloth. The white writing on the white background is very hard to see, especially when watching on a phone.
They can also just add a black rectangle being every subtitle, easy to set up in editing
Finally, a sane answer to the whole Yasuke debate.
No evidence of him ever being a samurai, or being treated as such. The Talk page on Wikipedia about this topic is has been a bloodbath for months.
That's because a certain video game company had it's fanatical followers launch a campaign to rewrite history to win an argument they were losing.
This is why should not trust Wikipedia.
Did you watch the video? His answer was "there is a debate" meaning he can't say for sure one way or another which is also essentially has been happening with the discussion around the new AC game
Ahh, threatening to boycott Ubisoft in "protest" are we? 😁😆 Feel like you accomplished something today?
@@commandercavy9549 I've observed that Wiki bloodbath since day one. I knew about Yasuke like 15 years ago. And, he was never considered a samurai. Nobody questioned it, because there was zero evidence to support that claim. Then the woke Ubisoft zerglings came along and just overrun the page, citing history fanfic writers like Thomas Lockley as "legitimate historical sources", because the burden of proof was on the zerglings. Then they went through extreme mental gymnastics and semantic kung-fu, only to land on the sentence "Yasuke was a man of African origin who served AS a samurai." Can you notice how subtle it is? Since they couldn't prove he was a samurai, because of course there was no evidence, and every single argument was disproven, about this sword, house and stippend, they argued that "while he might not have OFFICIALLY been a samurai, he served AS a samurai, in SOME capacity."
That would be like me doing a citizen's arrest and then claiming I'm a police officer. It's raw insanity of the highest order of magnitude.
日本語話者しか想定していない純粋な日本語コンテンツとして見ても素晴らしいクオリティですね。踏み込んだ内容なのにわかりやすい。人選が素晴らしいんだと思います。
This was fantastic. Thank you for taking the time to answer.
ya i remember this tidbit too; that the samurai rarely used swords. since anyone smart enough would choose a long rang weapon over a short one to increase survivability. so the sword at the end became more of a status symbol and too precious to actually be used
The armour at 7:16 is a Sendai dō, a type of (north) eastern cuirass that was in use by the Date clan following the Keichō period. I wrote a research paper on the development of these types of armors in eastern Japan during the late 16th century, for those interested it is called Tōgoku no bugu (東国の武具): study notes
maybe i'm wrong, but do they also use fish scales and shells for armor?
@TheBadsectorzero No, Japanese armor was traditionally made either of steel, iron or hardened rawhide. Some of those armor pieces might have been shaped to look like "fish" scale although another interpretation is feather, but they were still made of the aforementioned material. It is a much later design tho like around the 1600-1700 and it is usually called gyorin zane (魚鱗札)
@gunsenhistory7919 Thanks for sharing your knowledge, also!
This is zenith of @wired support videos. I loved every bit of information. His enthusiasm was infectious and honestly am looking forward to many more videos in native languages!
Just a thought: if you are releasing a video on topic let us know. We would love to ask questions. My question for the expert is: when did katana and samurai acquired cult status?
Absolutely wonderful Wired video, one of the best. Yasutsune Owada had some incredible answers, demystifying many perceptions and expertly conveyed the history and also the gray areas of how Feudal Japanese history evolved. I'm happy to see people looking at the deeper nuances of Japanese history and how it's impacted modern Japan.
I struggle to visualize, to truly understand, medieval warfare across the board despite it being an interest. This guy has an amazing way with words. Succinct, but it put me right there and the mechanics of the warfare make sense, after only a short paragraph. Awesome video.
Dan Carlin has always said, if he had a Time Machine, he’d go in some sort of hot air balloon & observe these ancient battles. It would answer so many questions. For much, we can only infer & surmise how these things went- and can only guess how chaotic it truly was.
This might be the best video WIRED has put out point blank period. As usual, super knowledgable and engaging person selected to speak, but the more complete answers added a depth and context I really appreciated. More like this please! Give these experts the time they deserve.
Biased weeb
In the comments, an awful lot of children who apparently can't read nor want to: complaining about subtitles.
Grow up kiddos, not everything needs to be spoonfed to you in your native tongue to be valuable. They put more effort into bringing you this information than you normally put in while driving or on your lunch break, you can read subtitles every now and then.
I am using an aggressive tone because that is the tone I'm reading in these comments.
Wired, please do not let those people dictate your creative direction in the future.
Quit glazing weeaboo we just like having it on in the background 💀
@@ThunderXSurge I'd say the same thing if it was a video in any language. Grow up.
@@Bargadiel Please explain what this has to do with maturity 💀
@@ThunderXSurge Although the thread OP may come across as a little brusque (I suspect this is reason why you are arguing with him), he is essentially correct. Most adults would consider it silly to allow subtitles to get in the way of interesting information. Are subtitles truly such an inconvenience that you'd get drawn into an argument over them? Like I said earlier, you're probably not here because you care, you're here because you think OP is a jerk.
@somedude7938 No I was bothered this series is great background watch
Love his authenticity and enthusiasm!
I love how extremely specific he was in answering these questions.
i appreciate the translation, but what Owada san said about white rice was not 'delicacy', but 'the most extravagant indulgence'. 大変に贅沢品だったのです
I would translate that as "it was a serious luxury."
Very grateful for Owada-san/sensei for sharing his knowledge. Its was super awesome to learn !
I know there are other equivalents in SOME cultures to the Samurai but it's wild that such a small country like Japan has such a popular and unique class in their history. Tough not to simp sometimes.
Amazing content 😅. I love this ❤
I just left the room and listened to this guy in Japanese for a half hour.
Years of subbed anime have prepared me for this.
😂 pretty much
This was great! Please invite Owada-san back for more videos!
Very interesting! I am glad this gentleman/scholar was hosted or I never would have learned about Samurai. Thank You!
Amazing Q&A. There is a similar proverb in Turkey about honesty. Also horseback archery and fighting were the building stones of central asian civilizations. they heavily relied on their bows and arrows, sword was used as a last resort.
It is interesting that both in Japan and Europe, some noble families fell into financial ruin but retained their social status, then selling them to others with money for that status
I like the subtitles, but they are too small for phone screens. It doesn’t help that the text body is white with a relatively thin black outline on a white background.
Loved this one. Ninja expert next please.
In modern Japan, those who fail the university entrance exam are called ronin.
I actually really don't mind the subtitled videos! Reading it honestly helps you grasp it better anyway. I'm curious if anyone knows: at the beginning of the video the subtitles say "the first question" but he speaks like 10 syllables. Is that really what he said directly translates to? I'm just wondering why there were so many sounds/how its broken down.
He says まず最初のご質問ですけれども (mazu saisho no go-shitsumon desu kere domo). The only part that literally translates to "the first question" is "saisho no go-shitsumon". "mazu" can be thought of as something like "to start us off..." or "to begin with...", and is very commonly heard in Japanese, even if it sounds a little redundant to write out the literal translation. The last part, desu kere domo, is a little complicated, but just think of it as boilerplate Japanese for very politely bringing up a topic. Since he's about to dive in to the first question, this is a natural way to transition using polite speech. You can make it less formal by changing "keredomo" to "ga".
"Well, now then, here we have the first question; ..." as Peanutchy notes, some what he said is a common set phrase, e.g.. desu kere domo "Well, now then ..". Cheers.
@@Peanutchy That was an awesome explanation. Thank you very much! Appreciate you writing all of that out, I get why they wouldve condensed it in the subtitles.
Oh, THIS is the episode that tops it all--educationally AND culturally. 💯 We love how we can share different cultures BY the people who originate and take care of this culture. I absolutely salute WIRED for their top-notch content. 👍🏻
you can see how passionate he is, yasuke only really became a popular talking point of japanese history on internet recently so when asked about this really niche obscure guy with a cool story his eyes just light up lol
i learned so much
More videos like this of experts speaking in their native tongue with proper and varied subtitle options👌🏼
This may be the most educational Tech Support I’ve watched. So much of what the Western world “knows” about samurai is fake.
Anything about Japan and Japanese history & culture is fascinating.
this was so so interesting!!
This was awesome! Glad to hear about bajutsu and yumi as I learn both and it is very interesting❤
Love all the "desukerodomo" usage :)
I like how he explains things. It’s all very interesting.
I'd love to see another video like this about Ninja
If a foreign subject is made a video with in that place's language then you know it will be good.
18:00
Interestingly, brown rice is now more expensive than white rice. This is because white rice is the staple food in modern Japan.
However, because only the core of the grain is eaten, white rice has much lower nutritional value than brown rice or millet. Additionally, because grains such as brown rice and millet were rich in nutritional value, farmers during the Edo period were sometimes healthier than ordinary people living in cities.
In areas where trade cooperatives and fishermen's cooperatives existed, it was easy to obtain fish for protein, and in towns where a carnivorous culture remained, samurai and others had large, muscular bodies. This was a common tendency among Japanese people living in Kyushu during the late Edo period.
@@足袋-j7q Is it true that advanced farming techniques led to bigger harvests caused "inflation" for those paid in rice?
It was an interesting talk that humanized the warlike image of the samurai.
great video, thanks for posting! thoroughly enjoyed!
Spear was the most used and most efficient weapon during medieval era at any regions, but today sword is more popular and glorified because it looks "cooler" while being used. Apparently running around slashing enemies is cooler than standing still and poking.
Few region I know that still portray spear as the main weapon in modern culture like movies, novels and games is China (Dynasty Warriors, Wukong, etc).
Very interesting stuff! Loved this video
Very entertainingly informative👏
Why do I suddenly feel the urge to buy a katana and start practicing in my backyard at 3 AM? 😂
The most impressive part of this is him acknowledging cultural and historical values without phrasing it in a way adverse to modern values. Tat is a difficult line to walk and he does it very well.
Interesting to learn about the nuances of the samurai. It’s pretty cool to learn of the kinds of armor and weapons they used and their origins.
ありがとう、おわだ先生！御名前の漢字をちゃんと付けなかった、すみませんでした。丁寧に説明方で教えて下さると、聞く喜びました。大学生の日本語先生な懐かしい思い出が出ってくります。もちろん、書き悪かった部分は私のせいで、大学生の先生を攻まないように。
And in English, thank you again!
Finally a Japanese history historian
I'm not at all surprised to see Yusuke's name come up. Western liberals are obsessed with the idea.
But in reality he was a nobody and basicly just a pet or trophy to show off, His name translates to something like "Very Servant".
There's almost nothing mentioned of him outside of 1 or 2 letters and he was only around for a couple of months before leaving.
The reason Yasuke "came out of the blue" is because some British guy extrapolated (made up) 99.99% of it within the last decade so that he could sell books to western liberals desperate for anything that might assuage their own white guilt and black supremacists have a habit of cultural appropriation.
If he had been a samurai, If he had magically become so proficient in arts that take decades to practice in just 2 months, There would have been a lot more written about him.
What a great video, I couldn’t stop watching because there was so much info packed in. If they do a follow up with him I have a question: are there still people in Japan who consider themselves descendants of samurai? Kind of like the Daughters of the American Revolution (that’s the best example I could think of, maybe it’s not applicable).
Yes. Japanese Figure Skater Nobunari Oda is a direct descendant of Oda Nobunaga. A samurai clan who at one time conqured most of Japan during the Sengoku period
います。徳川、織田、伊達といった有名な武士の本家は今現在でも今代の当主がいて家系存続していますから。
Rather than "some people think they are descendants of samurai", there are actually descendants of samurai.
Moreover, if it is a high-ranking family line, there are also samurai families that have survived directly to this day.
(I'm worried about whether it's being translated correctly, so I'll add it.
"There are direct descendants. ")
その人の姓を見れば、本人じゃなくてもわかります。「島津」「真田」「武田」などの姓であれば、名のある武士の子孫だな、と判別出来ます。
I haven't even watched this yet and it already wins everything! 🤩
This makes me want to learn Japanese.
Ah, my hundreds of hours playing Shogun: Total War finally has some practical use.
I love that I got 2 unskippable ads before the video and they were both the same exact snoop dogg tmobile iphone ad...
Me too lol
12:22 Ubisoft shills be hating this.
😂😂😂true
No one is hating.
He litteraly said that it's possible he was we just don't have enough evidence. You people are taking it like he said that he wasn't a samurai for sure. Your listening but not hearing what he is saying
@basicname1555 And "you people" only cherry pick the words you want to hear, not the other way around. An entire wiki was re-edited based on a quack fraud using his own book as the proof of source, but of course, that slipped over your self- righteous heads. When a real historian even pips up, contradicting Ubislop's words, they got blocked. How very closed off, for a company advocating for "dIvErSiTy".
@@basicname1555
if he had been a samurai, why left? why not served either akechi or toyotomi?
after all, samurai was a social class that's respected during the sengoku jidai until the Meiji Restoration
字幕だから見ないっていう人多いみたいだけど、英語圏の人って字幕慣れてないとかあるのかね。英語コンテンツってめちゃくちゃ多いから、英語圏じゃない人より字幕読む機会なさそう
音を流しながら他のことができないからだと思う
Non-japanese, non-native English country I am.
It's great to have subtitles on, maybe because I used to read subtitles and having speed reading capability.
興味があったら字幕でも見るよ。
暇つぶし程度の興味では字幕読んでまで知ろうと思わないって事でしょうね。
英語に甘えないでほしい